India’s celebrated landscape artist Paramjit Singh offers an insight into his world, that’s as close to nature as can be

The memories of the fields, rustling in the wind, are as clear to him now as they were when he walked through them at the age of five. His cycling trips through Delhi’s popular ‘Ridges’ when he was a college student don’t sound too far away in the past either! As India’s most celebrated landscape artist talks of his work, you can almost catch those moments, the vibrancy of colours, the natural surroundings glint back in his eyes! “I have never really consciously chosen my theme of work...an artist seldom does. It’s the other way around,” shares the soft-spoken Paramjit Singh who, on an invitation of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, is hosting his first-ever exhibition of paintings, drawings and etchings in Chandigarh. In fact, it’s a first for the northern region!

“I am pretty unsure of art buyers this side of the country. I don’t know if minds here are cultivated towards buying art. The prices might have them feeling uneasy but I hope they realise that there was a time when I sold for as little Rs 250 and have progressed there on,” spoke Singh who as a “special gesture” has reduced his prices for the city by 10 percent. On offer are more than 40 works that bring in his statement landscape oil paintings, charcoal drawings and etchings. Put together it’s a visual delight - you can feel the rustle of the Kikar trees, the stillness of the marshy grasslands, the quiet flow of the river through the forest and almost trace the rugged terrain of an arid desert. “When I first started work on that canvas, it was actually a vast ocean,” Singh surprises us with his story as we peer intently at the ‘Untitled’ work that offers an aerial view of possibly a Savannah desert in Africa! “Why do you have to go that far? It could be Rajasthan,” quips the artist who took three years to complete this one. “Along the way it changed theme,” he admits. The colours might change, the landscapes might alter but Singh’s love for nature has been a source of inspiration for him, forever. “Yes, I travelled a lot but I reacted to nature early on...it became a part of my personality,” shares the otherwise reticent artist. Over the years, he’s also developed his technique which acts more of like language now. “Let me tell you that there’s a lot of pain derived out of the pleasure. Some works are physically draining while some are intimate and require me to go soft...” Singh offers an insight into his way of work as we admire the black and white drawings. “The white spaces haven’t been rubbed off for I never use an eraser. It requires a fair amount of control,” he trots of saying as we try and make the most of this special event.

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